(A) Consistent with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the city intends to:
(1) Regulate the placement, construction and modification of telecommunications towers and other wireless service facilities throughout the city to protect and promote the economic vitality of the city and to protect property values;
(2) Minimize the visual impacts of telecommunications towers through careful design siting and landscape screening;
(3) Accommodate the growing need for telecommunications towers;
(4) Promote and encourage co-location of existing and new telecommunications towers as a primary option rather than construction of additional single-use towers;
(5) Avoid potential damage to adjacent properties from telecommunications tower failure through engineering and careful siting of tower structures;
(6) To the greatest extent feasible, provide that proposed telecommunications facilities shall be designed in harmony with the natural setting and the surrounding development pattern as well as to the highest industry standards; and
(7) Establish criteria designed to minimize adverse health, safety, public welfare and visual impacts through siting, design and construction and buffering requirements.
(B) By requiring applicants to document the need for wireless telecommunications facilities in specific locations, the city will reduce the establishment of such facilities when such establishment can be found to duplicate existing and approved services.
(Ord. 16-97, passed 6-2-1997)